Apparatus for sorting seed bags

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for sorting articles, such as seed bags in which the articles are moved along a channel in spaced relation by a conveyor. One side wall of the channel is in the form of a continuous wall while the other side wall has discharge openings formed therein. A gate member is pivoted near one end in each discharge opening and in one position forms a part of the side wall and in another position extends angularly across the channel and deflects articles out the respective discharge opening. To prevent articles from staggering against the free ends of the gate member which is in position to deflect the article, the one side wall has recesses to receive the free ends of the gate members when moved into article deflecting position. Each gate member is preceeded by a deflector disposed at the free end thereof when the gate member is in idle position to prevent articles from staggering against the free end of a gate member which the article is to pass by.

United States Patent 1191 Born [ Mar. 12, 1974 APPARATUS FOR SORTING SEED BAGS [75] Inventor: Alfons Born, Viersen, Germany [73] Assignee: Dom Samen Fehlemann KG,

\ Kevelaer, Germany 22 Filed: on. 25, 1972 21 Appl. No; 300,666

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Oct. 30, 1971 Germany P 21 54 207.4

521 US. Cl. 209/74 R, 271/64 [51 Int. Cl. B07c 3/06 [58] Field of Search 209/73, 74; 271/64 [56] References Cited v UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,937,739 5/1960 Levy 198/38 3,252,570 5/1966 Smith 209/74 R FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,096,289 8/1957 Germany 209/1316. 1

Primary Examinerl 1ichard A. Schacher Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Walter Becker [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus for sorting articles, such as seed bags in which the articles are moved along a channel in spaced relation by a conveyor. One side wall of the channel is in the form of a continuous wall while the other side wall has discharge openings formed therein. A gate member is pivoted near one end in each discharge opening and in one position forms a part of the side wall and in another position extends angularly across the channel and deflects articles out the respective discharge opening. To prevent articles from staggering against the free ends of the gate member which is in position to deflect the article, the one side wall has recesses to receive the free ends of the gate members when moved into article deflecting position. Each gate member is preceeded by a deflector disposed at the free end thereof when the gate member is in idle position to prevent articles from staggering against'the free end of a gate member which the article is to pass by.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEI] MAR 12 I974 SHEEI 3 BF 4 PATENTEB MR 1 2 I974 SHEET 1; [IF 4 APPARATUS FOR SORTING SEED BAGS The present invention relates to the sorting of seed bags according to types or classes and subclasses by means of a transporting device in the form of a continuously driven endless band or belt which carries a plurality of pushing fingers which are adapted to be moved along a stationary conveyor path having a U-shaped passage cross section with a continuous side wall, whereas the other side wall has discharge openings which are normally closed by pivotable deviating sur faces, said discharge openings being associated with collecting containers for receiving sorted bags. According to a heretofore known apparatus of the general character involved, the continuous side wall is formed substantially by an endless belt which together with the pushing fingers formed thereon moves in conveying direction. When with the heretofore known apparatus, the deviating areas or surfaces are pivoted into the conveyor path in order to sort articles, there exists the danger that the articles to be sorted will have their advancing edge impact upon the ends of the deviating surfaces and occupy a transverse position with the result that on one hand the machine has to be stopped and on the other hand the respective article is pressed or even destroyed by the next following pushing finger.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks.

It is another object of this invention to provide a sorting device which will assure a safe transport of the individual articles even when the deviating surfaces are pivoted into the conveying path.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification, in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic top view of a device for sorting seed bags according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 diagrammatically illustrates on a larger scale than FIG. 1, a top view of the inlet end of the sorting device according to the invention.

FIG. 3 is a view similar to that of FIG. 2 and shows a portion of the sorting device as seen in the downstream conveying direction, said sorting device being provided with a deviating surface tilted into the conveying path.

FIG. 4 illustrates on an enlarged scale a section along the line IVIV ofFlG. 3.

The apparatus according to the present invention is characterized primarily in that the continuous side wall is stationary and for receiving the ends of the deviating surfaces when pivoted into the conveying path is provided with receses or indentations. With such a design, it will be assured that during the forward movement of the individual seed bags the latter will impact upon the inclined deviating surface and will not hit the front end edges of the deviating surfaces since the latter are received'in said recesses or indentations, and in this way there is created a continuous conveying path without protrusions. 1

According to a further feature of the invention, the continuous stationary side wall is provided with a longitudinally extending slot through which the individual pushing fingers extend into the conveying path.

The sorting device according to the present invention is advantageously further characterized in that the side wall of the conveying path which is closed by the devibags during their transport through the conveying path I from being pushed against the front edges of the deviating surfaces occupying their rest position.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, the apparatus proper for sorting seed bags is preceded by a'conveying path 1 over which cartons are transported which contain, for instance, seed bags which have been returned by the customers and are so pre-arranged that the seed content is located in the mass in the lower portion of the bag and that the folded flap with a code line on the seed bag is lying on top and always points to a side. The content of the carton or box respectively forms a delivery group, in other words, a group not sold by the customer, which comprises seed bags with different contents. Each carton contains a punch card which contains the name and-the customers number. An operator located at the servicing place 2 places the seed bags in bags from a carton conveyed along the transporting path 1 into the delivery chute 4 and more specifically, in such a way that the folded edges of the nonillustrated seed bags will occupy their proper position at the top and that the content of the bag will be uniformly distributed as possible in the lower region of the bag. When starting to withdraw the contents of a carton and prior to conveying its first seed bag to the sorting device, the operator inserts the punch card of the customer into a punch card reading device in the control panel 3 from where th customers number is conveyed onto a perforated or punched tape. On the perforated tape there is subsequently also recorded how many seed bags of the individual price groups have been returned by the customer so that the respective number of bags withdrawn by the customer can be figured out. The finished perforated tape may subsequently by means of a data processing system be evaluated for ascertaining the balance for the customer. By means of the perforated tape device and also by means of the line coding, the types may be ascertained by groups, and the number of the seed bags of each type as returned by the customer will be recorded in order to be able to evaluate the same during later deliveries to the customer.

The transfer of the seed bags to the sorting device is described for instance in my US Pat. No. 3,446,351 of May 27, 1969. Connected to that end of the feeding chute or trough 4 which is opposite to the transporting path 1 there is provided a perforated band 7 which rotates around the rollers 5 and 6. The nonillustrated perforation in band or belt 7 is divided in groups in such a way that only at'certain spacings is it possible to take along that seed bag which forms the first link of the row of seed bags advancing in the direction indicated by the arrow 8. This movement is carried out due to the fact that suction air becomes effective from the back side of the perforated band 7.

In the feeding trough 4, the seed bags have their lower edge resting on the bottom of the trough so that the bags are offset over a certain circumference and thus the seed which might still be in the upper bag portion will be displaced downwardly. The bag thus is bulged merely at the bottom, but within the region of the band 7 and in particular within the region of its line coding at the upper bag rim is flat and with said line 3 coding the seed bag protrudes beyond the upper edge of the band 7.

Held fast by the suction air at the band 7, the seed bag is transported off and'is conveyed between the two connecting conveyor belts 9 and 10 by which it is grasped and conveyed in the direction of arrow 11 (FIG. 2).

When transporting a seed bag between the belts 9 and 10, the upper folding edge of the seed bag which protrudes beyond the belts moves with the line coding past the two reading heads 12 and 13. The reading heads 12 and 13 are, as to their height, slightly offset with regard to each other, and their readings are electronically compared and corrected. By means of the reading heads also the transfer of the type numbers to the punch tape device is effected by means of which the data for counting are ascertained.

By means of the connecting conveyor belts 9, 10 the individual seed bags are conveyed to the'stationary conveyor path or conveyor chute 14, the inlet end of which, is broadened in a funnel-shaped manner. The conveyor path or chute 14 has a substantially U-shaped cross section and is arranged at the top side of a supporting frame 15. One side wall of the conveyor chute 14 (see FIG. 4) is subdivided into two wall sections l6, 17, which are continuous in the longitudinal direction and between which there extends a longitudinal slot 18 through which from the side fork-shaped push fingers 19 extend into the conveyor chute or trough 14.

The other side wall of the conveyor trough 14 is are adapted to be pivoted into the conveying path 14. Each of these deviating surfaces is substantially forkshaped (FIG. 4) so that a push finger, for instance, the finger 19 in FIG. 3, is adapted to move through the deviating surface 20 (FIG. 3) pivoted into the conveyor path or conveyor trough 14. Each deviating surface 20 (20') is equipped with a driving unit 37 which serves for pivoting the pertaining deviating surface 20 into the conveying trough 14 or for pivoting this deviating surface out of trough 14 when the said deviating surface for purposes of sorting a seed bag is triggered by a control unit associated with the reading heads 12, 13, and

' more specifically, in conformity with the line coding of the individual bags as ascertained by the reading heads 12, 13. The construction and operation of such electronic control arrangement is well-known so that a description thereof does not appear to be necessary.

Between each two successive deviating surfaces 20 (20') there is provided a stationary deviating surface 22 which in conveying direction indicated by arrow 21 is directed inwardly.

The wall sections 16, 17 are provided with recesses or indentations 23 which are shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 and which serve for receiving the fork prong ends of the deviating surfaces 20, 20, pivoted into the conveying path 14, as illustrated in FIG. 3.

The push fingers 19 are mounted on a conveyor belt 25 circulating in a vertical plane, said belt 25 being guided between guiding means 26, 27, 28 and 29. The conveyor belt 25 is, through connecting rods 30, connected to a chain 31 that at the start and end of the conveyor path or conveyor trough 14 is guided around sprocket wheels, of which FIG. 4 shows only the sprocket wheel 32 located at the end of the conveyor path 14. Of the two sprocket wheels, one serves for driving the chain, whereas the other one serves excluformed primarily by the deviating surfaces 20 which sively as deviating wheel. The sprocket wheel 32 is rotatable about the horizontal shaft 33.

The individual push fingers 19 are connected to the conveyor belt 25 while a rotatable disc 34 is interposed therebetween. A tension spring 24 has one end in engagement with each push finger at the connecting point 35, whereas the other spring end is fixed to the conveyor belt 25. Each push finger 19 has associated therewith a nonillustrated abutment which prevents a pivoting of the individual push fingers 19 in the direction of the arrow 36 (FIG. 3) beyond the position illustrated in FIG. 3, whereas the spring 24 permits a pivoting of the respective push finger 19 in a direction counter to the direction of the arrow 36 to a slight extent in case the individual push finger should encounter a resistance.

Assoon as a seed bag has been transferred from the connecting belts 9, 10 to the conveyor path or trough 14, this seed bag is, by means of a push finger 19, moved further in the feeding direction indicated by arrow 21. In conformity with the line coding of the individual seed bags as ascertained by the reading heads 12, 13 and conveyed to the electronic control arrangement, the actuating mechanism 37 of a certain deviating surface 20,20 associated with this line coding is triggered in such a way that this deviating surface 20 is pivoted into the conveying path 14 when the push finger taking along the seed bag under consideration reaches the range of this deviating surface. Thus, the situation illustrated in FIG. 3 may be obtained, in which the deviating surface 20 is pivoted into the conveyor path 14 so that a seed bag carried along by the push finger 19 is deviated along the outer curve guiding surface 20a toward the outside so that it will be able through the discharge opening freed by the deviating surface 20 to leave theconveyor path 14 and to drop into a collecting container 38 below the conveyor path 14.

According to FIG. 1, below the conveyor path 14, two mutually offset rows of collecting containers 38, 38' are provided while chutes or coils alternately leading into the seed container 38, 38' are connected to the conveyor path 14 and the individual discharge openings (not illustrated) are closed by the deviating surfaces 20.

It is, of course, to be understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited to the particular showing in the drawings, but also comprises any modifications within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an apparatus for sorting articles such as seed bags or the like; a frame, bottom and first and second side wall means on the frame forming a channel along which said articles are moved, means for supplying said articles to one end of said channel, conveyor means extending along said channel operable for engaging said articles and for moving the articles along said channel in spaced relation, said first side wall means being formed with spaced discharge openings, gate members forming deviating surfaces for deflecting articles moving along said channel out of said discharge openings and each pivotally supported near one end in a respective one of said openings, means for pivoting each gate member from a first position wherein it is disposed in the respective opening and forms a part of said first sidewall means to a second position wherein it extends angularly across said channel in article deviating position,

and recess means in said second side wall means in which the free ends of said gate members are receivable in said second position thereof to prevent said articles from staggering on the free ends of said gate members, said first wall means including a deviating element at the free end of each said gate member, each deviating element inclining inwardly in the direction of movement of articles along said channel and deflecting articles moving along said channel away from the free end of the respective gate member when the gate member is in the said first position thereof.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 in which said second side wall includes longitudinal slot means formed therein, said conveying means comprising spaced push finger means extending through said slot means and into said channel and moveable support means on the opposite side of said second side wall means from said channel connected to said push finger means and operable for moving said push finger means along said slot means in the direction of movement of articles along said channel.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2 in which each push finger means is pivotally connected to said support means and extending angularly therefrom through the said slot means into said channel, and spring means biasing each push finger means forwardly about the pivotal connection thereof with said support means into conveying position and permitting the respective push finger means to yield rearwardly upon encountering a predetermined resistance.

4. An apparatus according to claim 2 in which said push finger means comprises spaced fingers and said gate members are formed with slots through which said fingers can pass when the gate members are in said second position thereof. 

1. In an apparatus for sorting articles such as seed bags or the like; a frame, bottom and first and second side wall means on the frame forming a channel along which said articles are moved, means for supplying said articles to one end of said channel, conveyor means extending along said channel operable for engaging said articles and for moving the articles along said channel in spaced relation, said first side wall means being formed with spaced discharge openings, gate members forming deviating surfaces for deflecting articles moving along said channel out of said discharge openings and each pivotally supported near one end in a respective one of said openings, means for pivoting each gate member from a first position wherein it is disposed in the respective opening and forms a part of said first side wall means to a second position wherein it extends angularly across said channel in article deviating position, and recess means in said second side wall means in which the free ends of said gate members are receivable in said second position thereof to prevent said articles from staggering on the free ends of said gate members, said first wall means including a deviating element at the free end of each said gate member, each deviating element inclining inwardly in the direction of movement of articles along said channel and deflecting articles moving along said channel away from the free end of the respective gate member when the gate member is in the said first position thereof.
 2. An apparatus according to claim 1 in which said second side wall includes longitudinal slot means formed therein, said conveying means comprisiNg spaced push finger means extending through said slot means and into said channel and moveable support means on the opposite side of said second side wall means from said channel connected to said push finger means and operable for moving said push finger means along said slot means in the direction of movement of articles along said channel.
 3. An apparatus according to claim 2 in which each push finger means is pivotally connected to said support means and extending angularly therefrom through the said slot means into said channel, and spring means biasing each push finger means forwardly about the pivotal connection thereof with said support means into conveying position and permitting the respective push finger means to yield rearwardly upon encountering a predetermined resistance.
 4. An apparatus according to claim 2 in which said push finger means comprises spaced fingers and said gate members are formed with slots through which said fingers can pass when the gate members are in said second position thereof. 